Jay Salmon Jr.

Jay Salmon was born Edward James Salmon, Jr. (a name almost instantly shortened to Jay) on February 16th, 1965, to his mother, E. Elizabeth Salmon, and father, Edward James Salmon, Sr. Jay made news immediately in a front page photo in the Port Angeles Herald as his mother, all of 42 years of age, gave birth at such “advanced years.” His family soon moved to the town of Newport, Oregon in 1969, the place that Jay considered his true hometown, and where he spent his most formative years. Here he combed the ocean beaches, quite literally his back yard, with his brothers Rolf DeVries, John DeVries and Dirk DeVries, ran with his beloved family dogs, Hobo and Charlie, and built rockets in the sand with his good friend, Steven Miller. At age 16, his parents sold their Newport home and moved north to Bellingham, Washington where Jay later graduated from Sehome High School in 1983.

He enrolled in the National Guard immediately after high school and rose to the rank of Sargent. After training in Combat Engineering, gleefully driving tanks through the sandy hills of the Yakima Training Center, he used his military benefits to study business at Western Washington University. He moved to Seattle in the late eighties and began working at American Arts & Graphics managing their warehouse operations then later joined their purchasing team. The company was sold some years later and Jay worked as a buyer at Providence Hospital before being hired at Heery International, training in move management services for school building projects. In 2002, he moved to Radixos, a locally-based business doing move & facilities equipment planning based from Seattle. Here he began his career in project management for large-scale facilities projects (schools, hospitals, airports). Two of his major projects included the equipping and outfitting of a major addition to Northwest Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, and the Marin County Hospital in Marin, California, as well as the recently-opened Aviation High School at Boeing field here in Seattle. In all, Jay worked on over 80 projects at Radixos, providing project management and marketing the new company with the owner, John Waters, and Operations Manager, Debi Smith.

In 2001, he married Elonna Marci Lester in a celebration at the Lairmont Manor in Bellingham, Washington, that managed to involve a rubber chicken, the Bay City Rollers, and various references to the biological life cycle of the salmon. They bought a house together in Fremont (actually in 1995), living next door to good friends Randy Byers and Denys Howard. They worked, danced, played, and traveled to Europe together, where Jay was arrested for kicking an English bobby—completely justifiably, if somewhat uncharacteristically.

And the greatest adventure of all was the birth of his daughter Sophia on January 22nd, 2002. From those moments, when Sophia, wide-eyed, with an alertness and focus remarkable in a baby only hours old, began to take in the world around her, Jay was a helpless devotee. He and Elonna worked together to provide for Sophia a childhood filled with love and laughter, and creative adventure; and even when he and Elonna separated in 2011, Sophia's happiness remained Jay's top priority. They danced together at the Washington Athletic Club's annual Father-Daughter dinners, planned and made weekly dinners together, went hiking and reading in Carkeek park... in Seward Park... in Discovery Park; in anyplace with trees to climb, and clearings sunny enough to stretch out in with two or three good books.

In 2007, Jay was diagnosed with polymyositis, a rare muscle disease, which he battled with unfailing good humor, and with such promise that by the end of 2013 he was feeling stronger, and standing taller, than he had for several years. His sudden death on December 10th was something that no one would have predicted, considering how well he seemed; and one which everyone who knows him will feel as an incalculable loss. But the wry wit, the fun, and the sheer love of life, friends and family that were uniquely Jay's will remain with everyone he leaves behind, as will the image of him striding through that doorway–any doorway—holding Sophia's hand in his own, and wearing a grin that still seems, now, as it has at so many times in the past, like the promise of something wonderful—something absurd, or irresistible—that he simply has to share.

Jay is survived by his wife, Elonna Marci; daughter, Sophia Marci-Salmon; brothers Rolf DeVries, John DeVries, and Dirk DeVries, his sisters, Ellen Hammond, Patricia Salmon, Susan Salmon and Jeannie Salmon.

In honor of Jay's memory, please contribute your own memories and recollections by signing Jay's online guestbook (link below).

Many have asked if there was a charity or fund to donate to as a memorium for Jay. Contributions may be made to the "Sophia Marci-Salmon College fund", a link will be available soon.

Comfort food for the family can be sent using the following link...

http://www.mealtrain.com/?id=mve5amrqn10t